The present invention relates to an optical disc drive comprising a dedicated memory update controller for updating firmware of the optical disc drive.
An optical disc drive is a device for accessing information stored in optical discs. A processor of an optical disc drive controls operations of the optical disc drive through executing specific program codes. The specific program codes are referred to as the firmware of the optical disc drive. The optical disc drive's firmware includes all needed data, commands, instructions, programs, and all other information utilized by the optical disc drive. The optical disc drive's firmware is always stored in a nonvolatile memory of the optical disc drive and needs to be updated if required.
A firmware update scheme of a system in a related art stores both the needed firmware information and an update routine code in a nonvolatile memory of an optical disc drive. Under a normal operation mode, a processor of the optical disc drive executes the firmware stored in the nonvolatile memory to control operations of the optical disc drive. Under a firmware update mode, the processor executes the update routine code to update the firmware stored in the nonvolatile memory. This firmware update scheme requires additional update routine code. The nonvolatile memory must provide additional space for storing the update routine code. Furthermore, additional time is required for the processor to update the firmware by executing the update routine.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,043 discloses another firmware update scheme for optical disc drives. According to this patent, an optical disc drive includes a system control chip, a buffer memory, and a flash memory. The system control chip comprises a microprocessor and an additional memory. Under a normal operation mode, the flash memory stores the optical disc drive's firmware, and the additional memory of the system control chip stores ordinary information. The microprocessor executes the firmware stored in the flash memory to control ordinary operations of the optical disc drive. Under a firmware update mode, the additional memory of the system control chip stores an update routine code. The microprocessor updates the firmware stored in the flash memory by a new version of firmware stored in the buffer memory. The additional update routine code must be provided during firmware update. The firmware update requires significant time.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,523,083 discloses another firmware update method. Unfortunately, this firmware update method needs an additional host device.